JunkYard814

Do you need a reel as well? I would go with a Lew's Tournament Speed Spool in the 7.0 gear ratio. If you buy the rod from Gander Mountain tomorrow, you can get a St. Croix Avid with a $50 rebate, which would bring the rod to about $140ish. That would total around $290.

Well I caved in today and purchased the St. Croix Legend Tournament spinning rod in the 6' 10" ML XF specs. I'll give you a review when it gets in and I get to try it out.

I just picked up a Powell Diesel MH/XF. I haven't gotten to use it yet, but it does seem like a nice rod. Would probably look real nice paired with that Smoke too.

I have a Mojo for my cranking rod and I'm not really interested in getting another one. I wanted the Avid, but I would have to imagine the Legend would be a better rod. Also I noticed the Legend comes in either a ML / F or M / XF. Decisions decisions.

I still haven't purchased a spinning rod for my finesse soft plastics. I was planning on getting a St. Croix Avid in a 6'6" ML XF or around those specs. I just noticed that Gander Mountain now has a rebate special going for St. Croix rods and I can now get a Legend for pretty much the same price I was about to spend on an Avid. I've also been hearing a lot about these Black *** rods. Any of you're thoughts or suggestions would be awesome.

My drop-shot rod would definitely be a more expensive rod than my crankbait rod. I like the faster tip and a lighter power rod for dropshot

I don't mean to hijack this thread so this will be my last post. Forgetting the fact that nicer reels are more fun to fish, you are going to tell me that you don't think a person could cast any of the Revo's further than say an Abu Garcia Silver Max? Reliability plays a role too, I've had a number of cheaper reels break on me while fishing because they were made with cheaper parts. You are also more likely to lose a fish based off of a faulty drag on a cheaper reel than nicer one. There's a reason why Pro's don't use lower priced reels, and its not because they want to look cool. You get what you pay for.

You say that now, but how can you make an accurate assessment not having fished a reel above $100? I will agree that I've had reels that I paid $120 fish better than $200 ones, but I don't think I could find a reel under $100 that would match any of the reels I have that are over. The fact of the matter is that more expensive reels are made with better quality parts, are often lighter, have smoother retrieves, more reliable drags and better durability. If you want to fish cheaper reels, I really have no problem with that, but to say that reels over $100 are completely unnecessary is pretty much ridiculous.

Maybe I got a different impression from this thread, but it seems to me that no one has a problem with people keeping their catch as long as they follow the rules. Personally I love going fishing some weekends catching a bunch of sunnies and perch and frying them up with a couple beers. Limits and laws are in place for a reason though and that's to protect our fisheries.

I feel your pain. I found a local pond that was loaded with bass a couple years back, which is kind of a big deal here in Jersey. Not soon after, I saw many people fishing with salt water rods in that tiny pond. They kept everything they caught. I didn't mind the bluegill because there seemed to be plenty in there, but they would keep bass when they caught them, regardless of the size. This happened for about an entire year and a half. By the end of the next summer, the pond was destroyed. There are few bass left in there and now I'm out hunting for a new place to fish. I find it incredibly aggravating. These people have no fishing licenses, no etiquette and have ruined the place with litter. I have called our state Game & Wildlife several times, but they said they were too busy to get someone over there at the moment but would look into it. I got in a fight with a man (arguing, not physical) because he saw me catch a fish and decided he would fish directly next to me, literally shoulder to shoulder. When I told him he couldn't fish there he didn't understand and proceeded to tie on his bait directly behind me. A few minutes later I was setting the hook on a fish and took a step back, accidentally stepped on his rod and snapped in half. The man was furious, and normally I feel bad about situations like that and would have offered to replace it, but this time I felt it was justified.

I think my 4 go to baits are probably a jerkbait, spinnerbait, texas rigged worm and a crankbait. They produce probably 80-90% of my fish. I have been trying to expand my techniques though, so usually I'll carry those four and maybe one or two that I'm not really confident in. After I find fish with one of my main baits, eventually I will tie on a bait I'm not too confident with and learn how to use it. Knowing that your on top of fish is a great way to experiment. That's how I worked the jerkbait into my top selection and I'm currently practicing with jigs.

I guess my best would be the Lew's Tournament Speed Spool, although I do have a weird attachment to my Quantum Catalyst PT, which cost about half of any of my other casting reels.

I use a 7'0" Mojo and it's a pretty good rod. You definitely want a longer rod for greater casts. Edit: My Mojo is graphite, not glass.

I have been looking at that rod, but I don't really need a casting rod, I'm looking for a spinning. It's been tough for me not to pull the trigger on that seeing that it's been sitting in the bargain room for about 3 months and I check there almost weekly.

I would recommend starting to contact some schools you are interested in to see if they have a team. Before I arrived here at Penn State, I got in contact with a few guys and they informed me that they do have a club, which does have competitive fishing but also recreational. An email or a phone call never hurt and what's the worst they are going to tell you? No you can't join? Then check with another school if that's really what you are looking for.

Never mind, looks like the deal has expired.

They're running a promotion now buy two rods for a value over 200 get a free Rage rod. , so if I buy the Avid, I might just buy a triumph or something cheaper to get the free rod.

Sorry I forgot to specify. This will be a spinning rod. I've looked into the legend, but I've already bumped up my budget to include the Avid.

Darren, let me know how you like the rod. That's probably going to be the exact one I'm looking at.

So as I've been posting the last few weeks, I'm looking for a new finesse rod. I'm likely to buy a St. Croix Avid in a ML F or XF model. Has anyone tried the Avid Pearl series? I like the split grip handle, but I don't know if I can bring myself to buying a pink rod. I can deal with purple, but pink is a little much. Also how would you rank the Avid against the Premier. I briefly looked at the Premier, but I feel at this point I might as well spend the extra money and get the lifetime warranty.

I think TW has been running that special since December. I don't know about the warranty deal though.

I had 17lb mono on mine. It really depends what you plan on using it for.

I fish spinnerbaits, jigs and shallow cranks on my MH lightning rod shock.

Plueger President on a Berkeley Amp would be my budget set-up

I've posted a couple times already asking questions to build this set-up for finesse soft plastics. The more time I spend thinking it over, the more options I come up with and the more my budget increases . I thought this would be kind of fun to see what everyone comes up with. If you could build a set-up with the rods and reels below, what would you chose. Reels: Pflueger President Plueger Purist Shimano Sahara Shimano Symetre Rods: St. Croix Avid Fenwick EliteTech Smallmouth Shimano Crucial Shimano Compre I appreciate all your responses.